Running Doc: How to keep running despite asthma

By Dr Lewis Maharam

|NEW YORK DAILY NEWS|

Dec 04, 2017 | 6:00 AM

Dear Running Doc:

I'm 14 years old and just joined the school track team but forgot about allergy season — and I get allergies very badly. I was wondering if you knew of anything that I could do before that time comes to save me the embarrassment of not being able to breathe.

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Kelli M., Miami Beach, Fla.

Kelli, I hear this sort of question from asthmatic patients all the time. Understanding the difference between asthma and "exercise-induced asthma" should help you.

Asthma is a reactive airway disease. By this I mean that due to a variety of "triggers" like smoke, pollen, or exercise, the smooth muscle around your bronchioles in your lungs (the small pipes the air moves through) constrict.

Asthma can become dangerous if not treated with an inhaler and/or pills.

Exercise-induced asthma is when asthma is triggered only by exercise, and changing your running regime may help.

It sounds like you have real asthma, triggered by pollen, so a change in your running program won't help. The only help you can get comes from your family doctor or a pulmonologist who specializes in asthma. Being on the correct inhaler and/or pills for you should allow you to run without wheezing. If the regime you are on isn't working, you need to go back to the doctor, being an educated consumer, and get a regime that keeps you clear.

I hope this helps.

Enjoy the ride.

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Lewis G. Maharam, MD, FACSM is one of the world's most extensively credentialed and well-known sports health experts. Better known as Running Doc™, Maharam is author of Running Doc's Guide to Healthy Running and past medical director of the NYC Marathon and Rock 'n' Roll Marathon series. He is Medical Director of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. He is also past president of the New York Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine. Learn more at runningdoc.com.

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